Welcome to the blog of the Tasmanian branch of the Children's Book Council of Australia!

Saturday, 3 June 2017

Getting Graphic

Join Tasmanian author,
Christina Booth, as she opens a window into her creative world and tells a tale
of a story written and a story in the making.

Thank you once again for inviting me to contribute to the
CBCA Tasmania blog.

I write to you from ‘The Burrow’, the apartment set up for
Australian children’s authors and illustrators in the Adelaide suburb of
Norwood by the May Gibb’s Children’s Literature Trust. I am
currently here undertaking a one month creative fellowship supported by the
trust, who offer a home away from home to focus on a project that would benefit
from being away from home distractions and other pressing commitments.
Something I am very grateful for.

What am I doing here and why? This sounds like the big
question of life and beyond, but I will offer you just a snippet.

Last year I applied for a grant from Arts Tasmania and I
also applied, in hope of receiving one, for a Fellowship opportunity through
the Trust. To my delight, I received both and as I had applied to do the same
project for both, it seemed a confirmation that this story was meant to be.

Many of you will be familiar with my picture book from 2010,
Potato Music (Omnibus/Scholastic,
illustrated by Pete Groves). If not, go and find a copy now and read it. The
journey of writing that story was a long one. As I explained to the students of
Adelaide’s Scotch College during the
first week of my visit, it took seven years to write, including those long
periods of rest and re-thinking as it slept in the deep dark recesses of my
stories file on my computer.

It took this long because it was a story very close to my
heart. Often, when we first start writing stories, we wreck our brains
wondering what to include but the best way to write a story, be it long or
short, is working out what not to put in, for that is more important. Potato Music was a career changing story
for me. It was like an amazing, tough and effective apprenticeship, where I
learnt more about the craft of storytelling than through any other journey or
book I have written. I have to acknowledge and say thank you to one tough and
amazing publisher and my then agent for guiding me through that process, Dyan
Blacklock and Nanette Halliday. It was the story when things really began to
click. How to edit, how to use words in a strong and powerful way.The writing of Potato Music set me up for every other picture book I have written
and will write.

As you may have noticed, I did not illustrate Potato Music. This was also a difficult
pill to take. I had my heart set on it and, had I have illustrated it, it would
have looked very, very different. In her wisdom, my publisher felt I was again,
too close to the story to be able to step back and see other possibilities for
the illustrations, so, hesitantly, I let it go. Pete Groves, an artist from
Adelaide (I should look him up while I’m here) was contracted to create the
beautiful and ethereal images that accompany my text. It was another journey of
learning and growing. It changed me as an illustrator because I now know what
it is like to trust someone else with my story. It helped me to become a better
illustrator, being able to empathise with the authors I illustrate for.

So why is it I am discussing these things and not the
project I am here in Adelaide to work on and, indeed, the year with my grant?

Potato Music is my
project. After seven years, I am hungry to be able to retell the story. In its
many evolutions before becoming a picture book, Potato Music was attempted as a novel, a short story, numerous
variations of picture book texts and chapter books, back to a novel and then,
left to rest until reignited by a publisher’s interest. The picture book story
so many of you know, is a very condensed and timeless glimpse at a much larger
story. It is one I have been itching to tell and also have the opportunity to
illustrate myself.

After reading Art Spiegelman’s Maus a few years ago and loving Raymond Briggs’ Ethel and Ernest, I
immediately knew what I needed to do next with my story. I have always loved
visual forms of narrative and grew up with Tintin, Asterix and Mad Comics. I
continue to love them and appreciated seeing the complex art of storytelling in
graphic novel form. Working on telling Potato
Music as a graphic novel seemed the right step in its evolution.

So, I find myself in Adelaide at the May Gibb’s Children’s
Literature Trust burrow, writing away at scripts and time lines and potential
story lines. Again, I am plagued with what should I include, what should I
leave out, how do I respect this family story and yet make it universal.
Slowly, as my head begins to sit comfortably with this style of writing, I’m
beginning to see pictures and possible directions. Every now and then I reach a
T-junction or a cross road and need to decide which way to travel, but my
confidence as a writer has grown since my early days of writing my original
story of Potato Music, and I have learnt
to leave my pebble trail so I can explore all options and maybe draw them
together, or, if I must, remove them from the picture.

It is an exciting journey, slightly sad as it is about war
and loss, but also with hope as I bring all of the elements together to
celebrate survival and the future.

Even though the graphic novel market in Australia is still
comparatively young and there is still a long way to go with convincing
publishers to take the risk, I am hopeful of having this work considered and,
with any luck, published. It is an exciting new arena to delve into and it
seems right for me to combine my love of words and visual story telling into
this format. It isn’t new, but it is an exciting journey to be travelling on. I
am so lucky to have my peers encourage me and support me and to have the
invaluable support of Arts Tasmania and the May Gibbs’ Literature Trust to help
me on my way.

If you are new to the idea of reading graphic novels or
perhaps think they are for teenagers, young children and are simple, comic
strip plots about superheroes, fantastical creatures or Manga then I encourage
you to step out of your comfort zone and explore the broad genres represented
from the collections of graphic novels. They have been around for a very long
time and suite all readers. My recommendations to you are Maus, by Art Spiegelman; Ethel
and Ernest, When the Wind Blows,
and Gentleman Jim, by Raymond Briggs;
Kid Glovz, by our own Julie Hunt and
illustrator Dale Newman; and look up your favourite classics and contemporary
novels to see if they have been ‘translated’ into a strip style narration. I
have Sense and Sensibility, The Magicians Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children,
and a few of Neil Gaiman’s books on my bookshelf along with numerous other
examples of wonderful tales told using the graphic novel form. And we must not
forget to include our all time favourite Australian
example, stepping out of the traditional concept of graphic novels, Shaun Tan’s, The Arrival.

Maybe you have been enjoying graphic novels for years and
didn’t even know it.

So, from my desk in Adelaide, in my unit amongst the
suburban autumn leaves and quiet surrounds, happy reading. Make sure a graphic
novel is on your bookshelf.

1 comment:

The format of the graphic novel provides an intriguing reading experience. For us older readers who grow up immersed in the world of comics to younger readers who are exploring the diversity of graphic novels for the first time it provides an experience that engages the senses in many different ways. I am particularly pleased to see the old classics l loved being published in graphic novel format. These titles have a richness and depth that should never be neglected as they have the capacity to "speak" to every generation especially when converted to a more appealing different format.

About Me

The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) is a volunteer run, not for profit, organisation that was established in 1945 and is comprised of branches of individual members who are passionate about children's and young adult literature. This is the blog of their Tasmanian branch.